CloudFlare Transparency Report on National Security Orders

Earlier today, the Department of Justice and the Director of National Intelligence announced a change in rules governing the disclosure of National Security Orders, including National Security Letters (NSLs) received by a company. The DoJ and DNI now allow companies to disclose the number of NSLs and FISA orders as a single number in bands of 250, starting with 0-249.

For us at CloudFlare, we have long felt that the arguments in support of restricting the disclosure of NSLs to be flawed. We see no threat to national security by acknowledging the program or the number of orders a particular company has received. Further, it is frustrating that most assume the program to be widespread and that tech companies receive NSLs on a daily basis. In fact, Apple is reporting today that it has received between 0-249 National Security Orders. If a company of Apple’s size has received fewer than 250 National Security Orders, the average tech company is most likely receiving a significantly lower amount.

Given the new rules and guidelines, CloudFlare is publishing its initial Transparency Report on National Security Orders. (We will publish a more complete Transparency Report later on this year). CloudFlare has received the following:

National Security Orders Received

Total Accounts Affected

0-249

0-249

In terms of impact on our customers, even assuming the high end of the range, these National Security Orders would affect fewer than 0.02% of CloudFlare customers.

We believe that while it does not go far enough, today’s rule change is a step in the right direction. Moreover, we believe NSLs violate the principles of Due Process. CloudFlare will therefore challenge in court any NSLs we receive. If this means appealing all the way to the US Supreme Court, then so be it.

Happy Data Privacy Day! At Cloudflare, our mission is to help build a better Internet, and we believe data privacy is core to that mission. But we know words are cheap — even data brokers who sell your personal information will tell you that “privacy is important” to them....

Today, we are releasing Cloudflare’s transparency report for the first half of 2019. We recognize the importance of keeping the reports current, but It’s taken us a little longer than usual to put it together. We have a few notable updates....

Two weeks ago we wrote about Cloudflare's approach to dealing with child sexual abuse material (CSAM). We first began working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the US-based organization that acts as a clearinghouse for removing this abhorrent content...

Responding to incidents of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online has been a priority at Cloudflare from the beginning. The stories of CSAM victims are tragic, and bring to light an appalling corner of the Internet....